Most Canadians don't give a thought to the absurdity of flushing their toilets with clean drinking water. One of the most indispensable elements that sustain human life fails to stir even the mildest debate during an election, while spring floods rage and many communities go on year after year living under boil water advisories.
While the public blissfully sleeps, politicians and speculators are under no illusions about the massive potential cash value of fresh water. In fact, Canada's water as a commodity to be traded on international markets is one of the items up for grabs in the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) currently being secretly negotiated between Canada and the European Union (EU). Foreign companies want Canada's water. They want access to it and they want to be able to sell it to whomever they please and wherever they can make a dollar from it.
Last year during a closed-door trade tribunal, the Harper government relinquished Canada's long-standing national jurisdiction over fresh water resources. In retaliation against Newfoundland and Labrador for reasserting provincial control over water no longer needed by Abitibi-Bowater, after it closed its giant paper mill, the U.S. firm sued Canada for damages under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Rather than fight to defend Newfoundland and Labrador's - or for that matter, Canada's - ownership of its water resources, Canada caved and agreed to pay a multi-million-dollar settlement. That's right. Canada agreed to pay "damages" for the loss to a U.S. company of its access to Canadian water.
Having surrendered Canada's sovereign right to water to a foreign company, and signalling to the EU Canada's new willingness to trade it away, the Harper government's Bill S-11 further entrenches this valuable Canadian resource as a commodity. Federal Bill S-11 proposes to hand over to individuals the right to completely regulate and police the use of natural and filtered water on First Nations reserves. While most Canadians enjoy clean water at the twist of a tap, thanks to public works, dozens of remote communities have been deprived of what we take for granted. Not only do thousands of houses have no clean drinking water, even more have no access to sewage services. Meanwhile the federal government is setting the stage for handing out lucrative water contracts for private for-profit companies instead of building the proper public infrastructure needed to build healthy and self-sustaining communities.
Who stands to benefit and who will pay once the three above-mentioned political decisions begin to hit home? And why has there been no public consultation when virtually everyone in the country will be affected by these sweeping changes to public policy? The Aboriginal People's Television Network recently blew the whistle on a close Harper advisor who is now under investigation. The charge is that Mr. Carson has been selling influence on behalf of a party, or parties, seeking business opportunities installing filtration systems for First Nations reserves. This suggests there may be some very big money at play here.
First Nations residents are already wondering how their treaty rights are going to apply once their water resources have been privatized. Farmers must be wondering what will happen to them if the water that they depend on is claimed by foreign companies for diversion to industrial use, such as oil sands production. City folks may well be wondering how long it will be before the cost of tap water starts to rise. And what sort of clean water standards will be upheld once regulation is put in the hands of those for whom profit is the sole motivating factor? If people aren't doing any wondering right now, perhaps they will start to ask questions when the toilet fails to flush or the tap runs dry. NAFTA, Bill S-11 and CETA: ask your Member of Parliament about how those three things will affect your community.
- Schoenfeldt of Regina is chair of the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour's Trade Committee and DeLorme of North Battleford is the chair of the SFL Aboriginal Committee.
